Who is Dave Mustaine’s favorite guitar player of all times?
Author Benedetta Baldin - 4.7.2026
Megadethguitarist/vocalist Dave Mustaine was asked to identify his all-time favourite guitarist in a recent interview with Jon Chang of YSOLIFE, a prominent Taiwan-based music media outlet, as per Blabbermouth.
European guitar players, there’s so many really fast-picking guys, but ever since Yngwie [Malmsteen] came out, everybody else is just a really fast-picking guy. Before Yngwie, when a really great guitar player came on the scene, you had [Michael] Schenker, or you had Angus [Young, AC/DC], or you had James [Hetfield, Metallica] or myself, and we were really distinguished guitar players. You had the guys from [Iron] Maiden, but then there was this explosion, and there are so many guitar players now that are really good, especially because of the software that they can learn how to play with.
When we started off, we didn’t have all these apps, we had to learn by lifting up the stylus on the record and scooting it back a couple grooves and dropping it and hoping it went in the same fucking spot so we could pick up our guitar and our pick at the right time and play along with the song again, until they started developing, cassette decks where you could slow stuff down or back it up real easy. But that was the way we learned stuff.
So, I would have to say probably one of my favorite guitar players has a lot to do with the era that they came in, and I would say for guitar layering and sounds, it would be Jimmy Page. For excellent note selection, it would be David Gilmour. For being metal as fuck back when there were no metal guitar players, Ritchie Blackmore. I am not a fan of the keyboard, so I could have had them be a little bit lighter shade of purple and gotten rid of the keyboard player. But, yeah, he was great. And then, of course, like I said, AC/DC and Angus and UFO with Michael Schenker. That’s my ‘last supper’ kind of thing I’d want, have those guys with me.
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